The novel and characters pull you in like an old friend. It has feel-good vibes throughout despite some of the very difficult situations that occur for these women. There are two male characters who are also realistic and enjoyable. The camaraderie that exists between these women in different walks of life is so important in our growing and aging process. Jo has not been facing the truth, ignoring something rightvin front of her, and then the truth is devastatingly faced.

I saw the writing on the wall for one subplot from early on in the novel, making it all too neat, but then I thought, Why Not? Although it was emptied over a quarter of a century ago, there was no denying its looming presence; there was an eerie feeling of ghosts who would never fully rest. Faith Hogan's fantastic contemporary tale gives the reader a wonderful slice of life in Ireland. I enjoyed its themes of friendship and the strong sense of community. It is a story of loneliness, grief, heartbreak, forgiveness, second chances, and more. The Ladies' Midnight Swimming Club is divine, engaging, escapist reading that many will find appealing.jessiecahalin on #Review: Secrets of the Shell Sisters by Adrienne Vaughan @adrienneauthor #RosshavenRomances #romance #RespectRomFic #SecretsoftheShellSisters Thanks to the WaWa Club Readers for getting in touch to let me know that they have selected My Husband’s Wives for their July meeting. I hope you have fun! Set in a small coastal Irish town, The Ladies' Midnight Swimming Club is told from multiple perspectives. There's Elizabeth, whose life feels like it's only just beginning following the death of her husband. There's her best friend Jo, whose daughter Lucy and son Niall visit from Dublin. Lucy agrees to help at Elizabeth's late husband's GP clinic and in the interim becomes a founding member of The Ladies' Midnight Swimming Club alongside Jo and Elizabeth. Finally, there's Dan, a visiting writer from London who's come to Ballycove to finally discover where his life began.

The Ladies' Midnight Swimming Club is an impressive and thoroughly enjoyable read about three women, Elizabeth O'Shea, her lifelong friend Jo and Jo’s only daughter, Lucy. Anne on #Review: Secrets of the Shell Sisters by Adrienne Vaughan @adrienneauthor #RosshavenRomances #romance #RespectRomFic #SecretsoftheShellSistersThe three women are Jo, Elizabeth and Lucy. Jo and Lucy are mother and daughter, Elizabeth is a long time friend of Jo. They live in a small isolated village on the west coast of Ireland. Changes in their lives bring them together and it is together that they start to work through things. I’m sorry, Lucy, but consider yourself stepping into the TARDIS and re-emerging somewhere in the early 1970s.

As well as the women we also meet Dan who had rented a cottage in the village after leaving his high-flying job and needing some time out and Lucy’s teenage son Niall who hates his boarding school and wants to come home. If Paul had lived, would he have moved on again? Or does his relationship with Kasia signal a turning point in terms of his maturity, responsibilities and where he has reached in his life. Of course, the cover reveal is, in many ways, just another step on the journey to publication. You know the way they say it takes a village to raise a child – well, books are a little like that! I just adore Faith Hogan’s books, and she’s one of my top go-to authors for a guaranteed beautiful, atmospheric, and authentic read. Life is going to change for Elizabeth, Jo and Lucy, but with their close and supportive relationship between them they know that they can handle whatever life is going to throw at them.Review: Snowbound With The Brooding Lord by Sarah Mallory @SarahMRomance @MillsandBoon @HarlequinBooks #publicationday #histfic #RegencyRomance #RespectRomFic First of all, I liked that both Jo and Elizabeth were older women. I don't think you get elderly protagonists all that often in contemporary literature (at least not in my experience) so it was lovely to see these retired women painted in such a vivacious and characterful hue. I also enjoyed Hogan's portrayal of female friendship. The three leading ladies were all without their husbands - Elizabeth and presumably Jo through death, and Lucy through divorce - and Hogan was able to spin this into a very female-empowering set-up, with each of the three discovering contentment, purpose and autonomy, with the encouragement of female solidarity.

At first, this is Elizabeth’s story, her life falling apart after the death of her doctor husband – not through grief, as theirs was never the most loving or conventional of marriages, but because she discovers that he’s left her with life-changing debts through his drinking and gambling. But she is fortunate to have a close friend she can confide in as she contemplates her past and the uncertain future – and Jo is also able to help in a practical way. Her daughter Lucy is taking a much needed break from her pressurised job in A&E, a breathing space she’s never really taken to recover from the end of her marriage, spending time with her mother while she decides what to do next with her life, and she steps in for a while to run the doctor’s surgery in Elizabeth’s Georgian house on the hill. In search of solace, Jo and Elizabeth enjoy midnight dips in the freezing sea. Here they can laugh, cry and wash away all their fears. The idea takes root with others, and soon, the entire community is involved. The author did a great job of presenting these women as individuals and then who they were as members of the tight knit community in which they lived. There were times of sadness, where I almost shed a tear and others when I was almost laughing out loud. The characters were strong, brave women who had all been through tough times, but something about meeting nightly in the cold waters of the ocean where they felt the freedom only the vastness of the sea can bring brought out the very best in them. They went from being insecure and scared about what the future held to being ready and able to confront whatever life threw at them next.When Elizabeth’s husband dies, leaving her with crippling debt, the only person she can turn to is her friend, Jo. Soon Jo has called in her daughter, Lucy, to help save Elizabeth from bankruptcy. Leaving her old life behind, Lucy is determined to make the most of her fresh start. The Ladies’ Midnight Swimming Club is a story about friendship, learning to adapt and overcome life’s hurdles, starting anew and recognising what makes you happy.